Pruning is a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as with trees where branches are trimmed or removed. While there are many reasons for trimming trees and large plants, the removal of damaged tree portions is a primary concern. Such generally includes a targeted removal of diseased, damaged, dead, non-productive, insect infested, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted tissue from a tree or similar large standing plant.
In most trees, branches and even entire trees are known to die off for a number of reasons. Such may, for example, include age, light deficiency, heat damage, drought, damage from pests and disease, and root structure damage. At some point, such a dead or diseased tree branch will reach a point of decay where it will fall from the trunk or large branch of the tree. While normally this may be a very slow process, high winds or extreme temperatures can accelerate it.
However, because trees and branches are generally covered on all exterior surfaces with bark, such damage while extensive may not be visible. Because large trees have branches located in elevated positions, which can be many feet above the ground, safety is a significant reason to trim the tree prior to a branch falling which can cause significant injuries. Particular attention is generally paid to the inspection of and removal of dead or diseased branches where they overhang public roads, houses, and gardens. There are a number of conventional means for inspection, however some are destructive to the tree itself, and all are time consuming and inexact.
For example, a widely employed means for inspecting large trees and branches employs a mallet or baseball bat which is used to make contact with various points on suspected trees and branches. Each impact makes a sound which varies depending on the density of the tree or branch underneath the bark where the pole impacts. However, such is very inaccurate in that it requires interpretation of the various sounds by the inspecting person who can easily make mistakes. Further, since many trees are very tall and outside the reach of an inspector with a pole on the ground, higher branches are not well inspected if at all. This inaccurate method of inspection is also extremely time consuming and thus limits the number of trees inspected in a day or time period to a few.
Other inspection means use core drilling into the tree or branch which allows the inspector to view a core sample. This is even more time consuming than the sounding method above, and also risks the health of the tree or branch by leaving voids therein allowing insects or pathogens an easier route.
The device and method herein described and disclosed, provides a highly accurate inspection and review of tree and branch interiors to reveal detailed information concerning hidden damage from disease and insect pests. Using thermal imaging from an imaging device or camera, detailed cross-sectional imaging of an entire tree may be captured in seconds. These images provide the user with highly accurate positioning of any internal damage to trees and branches allowing trimming in a highly accurate manner heretofore unattainable.
The forgoing examples of related art and limitations related therewith in the area of tree and plant inspection for disease and damage are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the imaging device and method described and claimed herein for tree and plant inspection for hidden damage. Various limitations of the related art are already known or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.